North Central (Indianapolis) (3,200) Built 1995
January 7, 2024: Hamilton Southeastern vs. North Central (Indianapolis) (Boys)
January 7, 2024: Hamilton Southeastern vs. North Central (Indianapolis) (Boys)
Last year I felt like I hit a lot of schools that were way out in the boonies. Especially on Tuesday nights, I usually made my way pretty far out into the middle of nowhere in any number of directions. Most of these schools are the product of the consolidation of many tiny single town schools. A lot of them have ambiguous names that are loosely tied to a direction, county, or both. They're the kind of schools and gyms I used to haunt every winter as a kid growing up in northeastern Indiana. This year I've unintentionally seemed to have turned my attention more towards gyms in the greater Indianapolis area. It's definitely a different experience. Everything is a little more expensive, there's a little more security, and the basketball itself is typically a little higher quality. The schools are bigger, even if the gyms often are not. The basketball tradition and history is often just as rich, but the fan following usually hasn't been sustained nearly as well.
Even though there are a lot more students in these schools, the population is usually a lot more transient which makes it hard to build a community-based atmosphere. When Indianapolis, South Bend, Gary, Fort Wayne, and Evansville used to have true neighborhood high schools, there was a lot of civic pride and backing for basketball programs. With the advent of charters in the bigger cities and school choice, those kinds of schools ceased to exist, and the spirit behind the local basketball teams largely went with it. Many of these bigger schools may not have the nightly support they once did, but the programs still have a history worth celebrating, and their gyms are a large part of that. My visit to North Central in Indy doesn't quite fall into that category as its gym is fairly young and wasn't around for the program's early days which date back to 1957. It has housed a state championship team though along with multiple Indiana All-Stars. In a city where not many of the gyms stand out on their own, this one is a solid enough place to catch a basketball game on a very chilly Tuesday night.
North Central doesn't have the biggest gym inside 465, but it's definitely up there. Ben Davis, Arsenal Tech, and a couple others can hold a few more people, but North Central still feels pretty large when you walk into it. It has two levels like many other gyms. Each sideline has 12 rows on the bottom and about 18 on the top. I'm not sure how new all the bleachers are, but they seem pretty shiny and unscuffed (There was construction going on all around the outside of the gym so I wonder if work was done recently in the gym as well). The bleachers are all plastic, which is a shame in a gym this big. Wood would look really nice. The plastic is painted black though, which is hands down the best plastic bleacher color by far. If you have even an ounce of black in your color scheme and insist on cheaping out on plastic bleachers, you have to go with black. The difference in how they look compared to any other color is huge. You can access the upper level via exterior stairs or up through the stairs on the bottom level bleachers which is always nice and convenient. The barrier between the levels actually has little sliding doors which is a new feature I havn't seen before. In the corners of the walkway between the levels on one side are little broadcasting areas. The most unique feature of the whole gym is the giant curtains that hang in all four corners of the gym. Two are pulled back to make room for the broadcasts, but the other two hang freely and obscure the view of any fan who would be strange enough to sit in the very bottom corner of the upper bleachers. They don't look particularly wide, but I'm guessing they can be pulled all the way across and meet in the middle to form a partition for the upper level. I can't think of another use for them. When they're pulled back though they look like giant window curtains framing the upper level of seats.
The baseline wall above the main entrance to the gym is almost entirely covered in the generic state champion and runner-up Indiana-shaped vinyl plaques. Can someone please come up with something a little more original? It's especially bad in these schools with thousands of students in each grade. We get it, you're going to win a couple state championships in something every single year. The wall displays are so homogenous that it almost feels like it cheapens the accomplishments. Make it special somehow! Anyways, the baseline wall on the opposite side stands out a lot more. I've been to a lot of gyms and have seen a lot of the big cat variety mascots murals, and the giant panther head that adorns the wall here is one of the most fearsome looking I've ever seen. I think it's the subtle red accents in it. It looks absolutely blood-thirsty like some kind of deranged talking animal predator in a classic Disney movie. I love it. The wall also has a track and field record board and the usual Indiana All Star jersey plaques. The red and black racing stripes that run along both baseline walls are a nice touch. The floor design isn't anything crazy but it works just fine. The majority of the court is a very light tan color while the inside of the three point arcs are a slightly more beige shade. A giant panther head sits at center court that mostly matches the one on the wall, but is a little less fierce. It doesn't have as many of the red accents and I really think that's what does it. "North Central" is written along each baseline in red with the black background. They also snuck some interlocking "NC" red letters right inside the sidelines which I don't think are necessary. There is enough space between the out of bounds line and bleachers on one side to roll out giant welcome mats in front of the stairs to the bleachers and still leave a lot of room. I know this is the new normal and I just need to get over it when it comes to modern gym remodels, but man do I hate it.
Walking out of the gym, I tried to find some classic team photos or old memorabilia and came up empty. There were a few tiny plaques but nothing worth photographing or really even looking at. This isn't necessarily a city school thing, I've seen a few places like Arsenal Tech do a great job honoring their history. I hope I find some more, because the history and tradition of Indianapolis basketball fascinates me. There's been so much flux over the years that it makes it hard to track. Many of the schools with rich traditions and decent gyms like Broad Ripple and Arlington aren't even open as high schools anymore. I'm going to have to find some nontraditional avenues to find my way inside those. There's also probably 5-10 charter schools that play in shoeboxes that I'm going to have to seek out at some point too. What I do know is that I'm going to have to get over the growing disdain I have for the drive down 37 through Hamilton County and onto what I've come to think of as Rainbow Road with cement guard rails (465). I've started ticking a few off my list, but the well of Indy gyms runs deep, and I've only scratched the surface. Hopefully there will be some pleasant surprises along the way.
